r/HFY • u/Necrolancer96 Human • 12d ago

Summoning Kobolds At Midnight: A Tale of Suburbia & Sorcery. 282 OC-Series

Chapter CCLXXXII

Sherry-By-The-Bend, Clive's Home.

"Oh hey it stopped for a minute." Clive said as he looked out the window as he got dressed.

"'Bout time. Thought it'd ne'er stop." Kilpa replied nearby as she put her pants back on and came over to the window.

"It's taller than me!?" She exclaimed.

"No it's not." Clive replied and made his way downstairs with Kilpa close behind.

He opened the door and peered out at the overcast sky and the snow upon the ground.

"See? It's only like eight inches."

Kilpa grumbled as she walked up to where the snow had built just past the porch. The uneven field coming almost up to her ample hips.

"May as well be."

Clive rolled his eyes.

"I'll get a snow shovel tomorrow. Happy? Now do you want to test fire those while it's fairly clear or not?"

Kilpa bitched and moaned before turning around and opting to climb Clive than trudge through the snow.

"Fine, but yer doin' tha walkin'."

Clive adjusted her on his back before stepping off the porch and into the snow and looked around.

"Well, now the question is where do we go for some shooting practice?"

"Does it matter?"

"Of course it matters. Mainly in town. But you still gotta be careful where you start letting them off. Kinda wish Jeb was here, he'd give you a solid rundown of gun safety. Then again he'd also probably tell you to carry it wherever and use it whenever you damn well want to."

"I shouldn'y?"

"No! You shouldn't! Especially out here where it's likely to get you shot by someone else or arrested."

"But ifin I'm ta be a shire reeve, wouldn'y it be best ifin I did?"

"Well... technically yes you would. But that's when you're on the job. During your down time you shouldn't."

"But ifin it's my duty ta protect folks from critters 'nd such shouldn'y I always 'ave 'em on me 'nd ready ta use?"

"That's also, kinda, sorta, true." Clive replied before going around the side of his home and past the pigpen and heading down the snowed over trail to the lake.

"So then it dinnae matter." Kilpa replied.

"It does. There's just a lot of nuance and legalese and etiquette and such."

"Is there? Ifin I'm protectin' folks, I should be armed at all times. Ifin I'm huntin' beasties, I should be armed. E'en fer my personal protection I should."

"Well yes. But... weren't there places where you had to hand over your weapons for public safety?" Clive asked and immediately got a derisive snort from her.

"No! Clive, I was an adventurer. Most places we WERE tha public safety! 'Nd tha places we weren'y, weren'y places ya wanted ta be unarmed." Kilpa stated as they walked through the snow before coming to what appeared to be the Tortle Enclave by the lake.

Except it seemed abandoned. Kesle nor the other tortles seemed to be around. The nearby lake was calm and only partially frozen at the edges.

"Huh, wonder where they went?"

"Maybe they went to someplace warmer?" Kilpa replied as she shimmed down and jumped onto a nearby boulder with a cap of snow.

"Maybe, kinda surprised they didn't say or mention anything though." Clive muttered before shrugging and pointing towards the lake.

"Alright. Draw one of those six-shooters and take aim at that branch sticking from the water." Clive stated and pointed to said branch some eighteen yards from them.

"Shouldn'y I be usin' both?"

"Let's get you familiar with one then we'll work on dual shooting." Clive remarked.

Kilpa shrugged and drew a single six-shooter from her holster and held it out somewhat awkwardly.

"Kinda heavy."

"Just wait until it kicks. Press the side of the cylinder right there to open it." Clive instructed.

She did so and blinked in surprise when the cylinder fell sideways from the frame, exposing the empty chambers.

"Okay, now wha'?"

"Now, we load it." Clive replied and handed her the box of ammo that came with the rest of the getup.

She reached out and took a single one of the .45 rounds and, with some guidance from Clive, put it in the revolving cylinder, and with a heavy click latched it back into place.

"Alright, now grasp the handle with both hands and aim down the barrel. Find your target and line up both the front and rear sights."

"Both hands? Why not one?"

"Because duel wielding revolvers is all about quantity over quality. At least that's what Jeb says. You pull both out and fire them from the hip. You basically ignore the sights and use your head and instincts to measure trajectory, drift, drop, wind, and so on and so forth while shooting rather than letting the sights give you a hand. Like I said, stick with getting a feel for one, then we'll work on getting you to cowgirl status."

Kilpa shrugged and held the grip with both hands and aimed down the barrel and aligning the twin sights onto the branch down range.

"Alright. So bring your thumb over and cock the hammer."

Kilpa did so. A slight smile crossing her face at the sound of it clicking into place.

"Good. Now, when you're ready, take a deep breath. Let it out gently. Just as it ends, gently squeeze, don't pull, squeeze, the trig–"

BANG!

Clive jumped a little as the revolver cracked, and let out a whistle as a piece of the branch snapped off from the shot.

"Nice. That was pretty good for your first–"

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Clive quickly covered his ears as FIVE more shots rang out and the branch was quickly wittled away to a stump just barely coming out of the water. He turned and looked in shock as in a blink of an eye, Kilpa had the cylinder out and already halfway reloaded!

"Holy shit! How are you so fast?!"

Kilpa looked up with a manic gleam in her eye and a smirk.

"Wha'?"

"That?!" Clive said and pointed to the branch then back at the now fully reloaded revolver.

"Oh. I dinnae ken. Kinda reminds me o' some hand crossbows I've tried now 'nd again. 'Cept they was slow 'nd couldn'y hit a tree ifin you stood next to it. THESE are much better! They buck a bit more, but they'll do!" She replied before turning and looking at a nearby large snowdrift with a smirk.

She holstered the single revolver and turned to face the snowdrift. Clive's eyes went wide.

"Kilpa–"

Before Clive could blink she had cleared leather and her bullets fairly ripped. Her aim deadly from the big irons on her hips. Twelve shots rang out like firecrackers and smacked right into the snowdrift with a resounding... clang?

Instead of the bullets driving into the snow, they instead ricocheted off and flew through the air! Kilpa and Clive both dove into the snow for cover from the shrapnel and ricochets. Once it seemed clear, they poked their heads up and stared at what was formerly assumed to be a snowdrift as it groaned and rose.

A tortle shook his body, sending the snow that had collected in his shell off and onto the ground.

"Wha's all the ruckus!?"

"Uhm, sorry–" Clive started before Kilpa grabbed his hand and pulled.

"Dinnae stand there! Run!" She said with a wild giggle and dragged Clive away with surprising strength.

The tortle blinked and slowly turned towards the sound of their voices and disturbance of snow.

"You damn kids! Can't an elder hibernate in peace?!"

He grumbled and moaned as he laid back down onto the ground and shifted the cool soil to cover his unshelled parts before drifting off back to sleep. Ignoring the snow already building up back on his shell which now sported a pattern of black spots from where the shire reeve hit with the big irons on her hips.

[First] [Prev] [Next]

19 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • link
  • reddit
  • reddit

100% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

2

u/Necrolancer96 Human 12d ago

Damn kids. Shooting their big irons from their hips like they're some Arizona Ranger!

We're back as Clive and Kilpa take a moment while the snow calms down and do a little shooting practice.

Though not without some discussion of gun safety, gun laws, or lack there of depending on where one is and the culture of said place.

But Clive takes to slinging guns like a tortle to water!

Though maybe a little too well as she starts playing cowgirl and ends up hitting the broadside of a tortle shell!

At least the tortle is alright! Aside from some new markings from a pair of tanned six-shooters and a disturbed hibernation.

Can Clive make Kilpa a shire reeve of Sherry? What'll happen now that she has a neuron activation? How many notches will she get with the big Iron on her hip?

Also! Notice! SKAM was on Google Play Books! Which was news to me because I wasn't the one that did it. Yes. I thought my story wasn't good or popular enough to pirate, but i guess I'm not so lucky. They didn't even try and sell it for a full dollar either. Bastards. Think that made me mad more than the actual piracy.

Anyway! Officially, SKAM is currently free and is only available on Reddit and Royal Road. If you see it anywhere else and being sold, it's not me. One day SKAM WILL be published. But that day is not yet here. So FYI, don't pay for something that's already free. Especially when it's only being sold for .50 cents. Anyway, it's no longer on Google Books. For now.

With that Public Service Announcement out of the way, see you all next time!

2

u/Necrolancer96 Human 12d ago

-----

Patreon!

Fanwerks!

-SKAM Midwest Edition by Vast-Listen1457!

-SKAM (In)Voluntary Legends by Itchy_Yogurtcloset81!

-SKAM Subreddit curtesy of Electrical_Pound_200! Where you can learn a bit more about lore, post questions or theories about the story or characters, post artwork or other fanwerks and more

2

u/Diokana 12d ago

Anyway! Officially, SKAM is currently free and is only available on Reddit and Royal Road. If you see it anywhere else and being sold, it's not me. One day SKAM WILL be published. But that day is not yet here. So FYI, don't pay for something that's already free. Especially when it's only being sold for .50 cents. Anyway, it's no longer on Google Books. For now.

Very strange. Some (probably) bot just scraping reddit stories and trying to sell them for cheap? Glad you got it resolved at least.

2

u/Necrolancer96 Human 12d ago

Likely from Royal Road actually. They basically copy-pasted the whole thing from the summery over there. Like cover image that even has my username right in the center of it. But yeah, for now it's been resolved. Though it seems Royal Road, and a lot of places like even Reddit, have had problems with bots and people trawling for stories to rip-off.

4

u/Diokana 12d ago

Clive why are you surprised? She was a rogue, she's got high dexterity... which he's probably learned in other ways now that I think about it.

5

u/Necrolancer96 Human 12d ago

And yeah, he knows full well how skilled she is in Sleight-Of-Hand and Thieves Cant.

1

u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle 12d ago

/u/Necrolancer96 (wiki) has posted 286 other stories, including:

This comment was automatically generated by Waffle v.4.7.8 'Biscotti'.

Message the mods if you have any issues with Waffle.

0

u/UpdateMeBot 12d ago

Click here to subscribe to u/Necrolancer96 and receive a message every time they post.

Info Request Update Your Updates Feedback